Hopkins School of Medicine Photos in the Osler Years

I was going through some of our old Osler books, as well as the ones I recently acquired (see last post), and scanned in a bunch of pictures. Because of the age of the books, they are all out of copyright, so I am republishing some of them here. 

See how many of the names you recognize from Old Baltimore Medicine days!

New Acquisitions

I recently found out that Marcia was a big fan of auctions, and when we moved into our building in 1909, she scoured the local auction rooms for furnishings for the building. She collected paintings, rugs and furniture to make the building feel like a warm and welcoming place for the members. 

Over the past 12 years, I've continued the tradition of buying items for the building and collections from auctions. Recently, I made a great purchase, which I got for my favorite hammer price - insultingly low!

I got Sir William Osler, Bart. [Baronet] Brief Tributes to His Personality, Influence and Public Service (Baltimore, JHU Press, 1920; A Way of Life (Baltimore, Remington, 1928) and The Bibliography of the Writings of Sir William Osler, Minnie Wright Blogg (Baltimore, Privately Printed, 1921). Miss Blogg was the librarian at Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

Another book I won was Sir William Osler Memorial Number: Appreciations and Reminiscences (Montreal: Privately Published, 1926) 619 pages. 

The memorial number is FILLED with dozens of photographs, many of which I'd not seen before. It was printed in a limited edition and the copy which I got is number 1424 of 1500.

The book is more than 600 pages and there are numerous essays from each part of Osler's life, including the early years, Montreal, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Oxford.

Many of the essays are reminisces from old friends and colleagues.

It has been fascinating looking through the book, and when I have the time, I will pick and choose the essays I want to read.

Sir William Osler's Legacy at MedChi

Meg Fairfax Fielding has just returned from the American Osler Society's Annual Meeting, held this year in (not so) sunny Pasadena, California. Her lecture was titled Dr. William Osler's Lasting Influence on the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty of Maryland. During the Annual Meeting, Meg was elected as a Fellow of the American Osler Society.

There are three specific ways Dr. Osler influenced MedChi which still affect our organization today:

* Providing the incentive and impetus for the 1909 headquarters building in Baltimore 

* Hiring Marcia Noyes as the librarian and establishing a medical library

* Creating our art collection.

It was the late 1880s, and the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, or the Faculty, had just come off a distressing time in its history.

Maryland is a southern state, with the Mason-Dixon line being its northern boundary.

During the Civil War, the state was divided between the Confederates, who mainly came from the rural, southern agrarian areas with its cash crop of tobacco, and Union sympathizers, who were from the more northern and urban areas.

The Faculty, whose members came from every county in the state, essentially went dark during the War. But “a little band of members preserved the library, charter, and hall through this dark period.”

Once the War was over, and rebuilding began, the Faculty also started to come back to life. They found a new home, unpacked crates of books, re-convened meetings, and began publishing the bi-weekly Maryland Medical Journal. They worked to increase the membership, although that was slow-going.

Dr. William Osler arrived in Baltimore in 1889. But before he even moved to Baltimore, he spoke before the Faculty at its April Annual Meeting, on the controversial topic of “A License to Practice.” Licensing physicians was the ideal on which the Faculty was founded.

Osler became a member of the Faculty a year later. No one could have anticipated that the mark he left would echo down through the years, and become an integral part of the organization. So much of who and what MedChi is today reflects the work and influence of Dr. Osler and is wholly integrated into our everyday life.

Since its founding, the Faculty moved to a number of headquarters buildings. Some were too big, and others too small. One was too noisy, and another was perched along a steep sidewalk, which became precarious in bad weather. Sometimes, the headquarters and library were in a member’s office, and sometimes, in the basement of the Athenaeum. In between the moves, the Faculty rented temporary spaces around the downtown area.

In 1895, the Faculty purchased the building at 847 Hamilton Terrace in Baltimore, and Osler was on the slate as the incoming President. His popularity attracted more and more members, eventually leading to the realization that the building was not set up for large audiences, and needed a complete renovation to make it work for the Faculty’s needs.

At the opening of Hamilton Terrace, and in a nod to Osler’s love of books,

Dr. James R. Chadwick of Boston, delivered the address titled “Medical Libraries: Their Development and Use.” At the time, the Faculty’s library was not yet one of the great ones… that was still to come.

Among Chadwick’s ideals for the growth of a library were money, a suitable building, and the continuous service of a librarian. Secondarily, subscriptions to a wide range of medical journals, and a detailed card catalogue. At this point, the Faculty had none of these things, but a permanent librarian, Miss Marcia Crocker Noyes, was waiting in the wings.

Over the next decade, Hamilton Terrace continued to prove inadequate to serve as the headquarters, a source of frustration for many, especially Dr. Osler. Although Osler left Baltimore in 1905, he was still very interested in the Faculty and a new building. He made it his mission to see it to fruition.

In 1904, a huge fire swept through Baltimore, and destroyed most of its downtown, which may account for the amount of time between Osler’s leaving Baltimore and the construction of the new building. Additionally, the main requirement for any new building was that it had to be fireproof.

Our new building also needed to have a stacks which could hold 60,000 volumes, three meeting halls, offices for the staff and visitors, and an apartment for Miss Noyes.

In 1908, a plot of land was secured just a few blocks from Hamilton Terrace, and a quick walk from the Mount Royal Train Station. Osler wrote to Miss Noyes saying how pleased he was with the location. Architects were hired and plans were drawn up. 

Ground was broken in August of 1908.

The building was dedicated on May 12, 1909. Osler arranged to be in Baltimore for the opening of the building, which meant delaying the celebrations for a week, so he could squeeze the visit into a frenetic trip to the States. He gave a lecture on “Old and New” and reminisced about the 16 years he spent in Baltimore. Osler later wrote to Miss Noyes that it was the greatest day in medical history in Maryland, and that the building is “just perfect.”

Note: I subsequently found out that Osler brought one of his copies of the Vesalius' Anatomy as a gift to the Faculty on the occasion of the opening of the new building.

Osler had envisioned the new building as a neutral ground between Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland, who rarely interacted. Centrally located between the two institutions, the Faculty proved to be the perfect meeting place. This continued for more than 110 years, until Covid hit, and meetings became virtual, rather than in person.  

Miss Noyes

One of the first action items Dr. Osler undertook when he became President of the Faculty to hire a permanent librarian, which he found in a young woman named Marcia Crocker Noyes.

She had worked at the local library and came highly recommended by the library’s president, a friend of Osler’s.

Although she didn’t have a medical background, Dr. Osler knew she would be a quick learner, and she proved him correct. It took a while for the doctors to come around to a young woman running the library, but Miss Noyes managed to charm them into doing her bidding, and they were happy to comply.

Dr. Osler and Miss Noyes, along with librarians from Johns Hopkins and McGill Universities, established the Medical Library Association. Miss Noyes managed a journal exchange in which medical societies who had extra medical journals swapped them for ones they were missing. Additionally, she organized what was essentially a nurses’ employment bureau out of the Faculty.

In 1903, she was appointed Executive Secretary of the Faculty because of a mandate from the AMA stating that each medical society required an executive. She worked to increase the membership, secure donations of books and money, and organize all the meetings and gatherings held in the building.

But there was still the issue of the building, which Dr. Osler kept pushing. Hamilton Terrace just wasn’t working, and it became clearly apparent that to expand both the membership and the library, a new building was necessary.

Miss Noyes took the lead in this, visiting medical societies up and down the East Coast and working with architects to create a headquarters which would be both beautiful and practical. She had a particular interest in this project because it would also be her home.

The Faculty, with Osler’s assistance, both financial and personal, began acquiring collections of books. Sometimes they were bequeathed to the Faculty by families and friends of deceased physicians. At other times, they were secured with designated funds set aside for book purchases or were donated by friends.

Over the years, the collection grew until at its peak, it numbered more than 60,000 volumes, including journals from every state medical society, as well as international and specialty societies for the entire 20^th century. The library also includes a significant number of rare books.

The library is mostly still intact, as are the 300 drawers of the card catalogue, some cards handwritten by Miss Noyes.

A current project is moving the rare books collection to a climate-controlled location in the 1909 building, and cataloging them to ensure their continued life as an integral part of MedChi’s history.

Art Collection

At the Centennial of the Medical Society, the trustees decided to celebrate with a series of events, including an exhibit of portraits of prominent physicians who had been involved with the Faculty. Dr. Osler was active in requesting paintings from and of physicians, with the goal of establishing a permanent collection of portraits of past presidents, well-known physicians and benefactors, for an eventual museum.

In fact, on the original blueprints for the 1909 building, there is a space marked for a museum on the third floor.

Of course, there is a portrait of Dr. Osler which holds pride of place in Osler Hall, with bronze plaques commissioned by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs flanking it. It was painted by Thomas Cromwell Corner, a society painter in Baltimore. Osler was not thrilled with the painting, and several changes were made, which he explains to Miss Noyes in a 1908 letter. Interestingly, he also disliked the John Singer Sargent painting of the “Big Four” at Hopkins, thinking that his skin was not the right shade, perhaps a bit too green.

Osler himself was responsible for commissioning at least one painting – that of Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, author of the Medical Annals of Maryland. Osler had been involved in this project, which was finally published in 1904. The Annals has a year-by-year accounting of highs and lows at the Faculty, as well as biographies of every physician who practiced in Maryland during our first century. The painting was a thank you for Cordell’s extensive (pre-Google) research efforts.

During the Centennial festivities, the exhibition of borrowed paintings was held at McCoy Hall at Hopkins. In searching through the catalogue of exhibits, we find there is a high correlation between the paintings exhibited and the paintings now in our collection of 120 portraits, as well as marble and bronze busts.

The oldest portraits are of our founders and first presidents. But Rembrandt Peale’s beautiful renderings of Edward Harris, Horace Hayden, and John Sloan are among the stars of our collection.

However, not all the portraits are of luminaries, some are near-unknowns whose families, friends or patients wanted to commemorate them.

In addition to the portraits, we also have a number of marble busts, some by William Rinehart, done in Rome in the 1870s.

Recent acquisitions - and we are still acquiring - are portraits of Tristram Thomas from two different collections. Thomas was a Founder of the Faculty, and a highly regarded physician from Maryland’s Eastern Shore. The two portraits are among our smallest and our largest, the newest measuring eight feet by five-and-a-half feet!

When we officially opened our Museum, just a year ago, on the 225^th anniversary of our founding, the art, books, and ephemera collected over the centuries became the structure on which everything else was based.

As my colleagues and I work in the 1909 building, surrounded by beautiful art, and knowing that we have extensive collections that continue to grow through the generosity of members and friends, we look back and see the long shadow of Sir William Osler, whom we, like others, consider our patron saint.

A Rare Book Mystery

A few days ago, a friend sent me an auction listing for a book that was once owned by our Sir William Osler.

Pasted onto the cover of the book is a letter from Sir William to Marcia Noyes, our librarian. It was written about six months before he died. At the end is a personal PS "Love to you all."

Marcia and Sir William were close friends from the time he hired her in 1896, until his death in 1919.

But how did this, and two other books signed by William Osler, end up at an auction house in Connecticut?

Of course, I had to do some sleuthing. First, I culled through our records, but could find nothing. Next, I looked through the catalogue from Swann's Auction House in NYC, where we'd sold a number of our rare books in the early 2000's. No record.

Then I called the auction house who told me that the consigner was an old client of theirs. They called him and then called me back to tell me that the client had purchased the book from a rare book dealer in Baltimore about 20 years ago.

Something pinged in my brain. About 20 years ago, a low-level staffer had contracted to sell all of the books in our stacks, about 55,000, to a rare book dealer. When the powers-that-be found out, they put a stop to the sale.

But, in the interim, the dealer must have acquired some of our books, among them, the three that are in this auction, and that was how the consigner acquired them.

Not everyone appreciates history the way I do, nor understands how important it is to retain items from our past.

Most people won't understand the relationship between Marcia and Dr. Osler. As mentioned above, they were close friends from the time he hired her in 1896 until his death in 1919.

There are dozens of letters between the two of them, all very friendly and affectionate. There are little cards from bouquets that Osler sent Marcia wishing her a happy birthday, or sending congratulations.

When Osler moved to England in 1905, they stayed in touch and she visited him in Oxford several times. He frequently sent rare books for the Library at MedChi, including two copies of Vesalius Anatomy.

We will bid on the books, but I am sure the final price will exceed my budget. All that I can hope is that the book finds a good home.

World Premiere! The Museum and Archives YouTube Channel!

For the past several months, I have been working on a series of twelve videos, and I have just created a YouTube channel, MedChi Museum and Archives, which will eventually feature all twelve of these video. Right now, there are only eight on-line, but expect the additional four or five shortly.

Here are the videos and links to them:

1. Our Founding Link

2. The First Meeting Link

3. The War of 1812 Link

4. The Napoleon Chest Link

5. The First Dental School Link

6. Sir William Osler, MD Link

7. Max Brödel, Medical Illustrator Link

8. What's in a Name? Link

Each video is about five minutes long, so I hope you will either watch them in one go, or dip in and out and watch a few at a time.

Let me know what you think!

We're Going to Party, Like it's Our Birthday!

Sigh, we're 115 years old today, and sometimes we feel every year of that. 

But because it's the BIG birthday year for MedChi, we are reaping some of the benefits. We are so excited to get some new bathrooms on the first floor. Honestly, I think those have been there since the 1940's, and do they ever need an update!

We were delighted when someone thought to pull up the carpet in the original entrance and find the beautiful tesserae tiles that had been hidden for decades. It's hard to tell, but the marble tiles are green and black, over white. 

The catering kitchen, which has been around since the 1960s is getting a good scrub and a facelift. Just what's needed at my advanced age, don't you think?

Best of all, we're getting a new elevator! Sadly, the original elevator, which probably dated to the 1940s, and had unusual doors which were perpendicular to each other, and have to be artisanally-crafted by hand. Only the best!

When Sir William Osler came to Baltimore for the opening of the new building, and to help with the dedication of the hall and assembly room named for him, he sent Marcia this note:

If Osler's happy, we're happy. And Happy 115th Birthday to our dear building!

  

Osler's Baltimore - 1889 to 1905

I was recently invited to give a talk at the Annual American Osler Society Conference in Kansas City, Missouri. Here is my lecture. 

I should begin this talk by telling you that I am a 12th generation Baltimorean on my mother’s side, so of course, I am biased, and think that Baltimore is the center of the universe! 

The Baltimore where Dr. William Osler landed in 1889 was a busy and active place, on the cusp, as ever, of accomplishing great things. With the bounty from the Chesapeake Bay, the fertile fields of the Eastern Shore, and the coal-mining mountains of Western Maryland, Baltimore was and is a major import/export center with goods from its factories, waters, fields, and mountains being sent world-wide, and imports coming in from around the world.

Between 1850 and 1900, Baltimore’s population doubled to more than a half-a-million residents. Baltimore was the second largest immigration point after Ellis Island. Although many immigrants continued their voyages into America’s interior, many stayed where they landed. Most were Irish, Polish, Greek, or Italian, and their descendants are still integral to Baltimore’s many and diverse neighborhoods.

The City embarked on a huge building campaign in the last 20 years of the 1800s, and the first ten years of the 1900s. New parks, schools, a new city hall (designed by a 22-year old architect) and municipal buildings were being built, and the city’s footprint expanded from ten to thirty square miles.

The Port of Baltimore is significantly farther inland than other east coast ports, so overland transport costs are significantly reduced. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad connected Baltimore to cities and states to the west, and steamships opened Baltimore to the world. Interestingly, the B&O Railroad family circles back around in the Osler and Hopkins stories. 

According to minutes from the Trustees of Johns Hopkins on September 25, 1888, it was a done deal that Osler would be coming to Baltimore as Chief of Medicine. The announcement caused quite a bit of consternation along the eastern seaboard, as both Boston and Philadelphia were interested in having Osler. Boston assumed he would, of course, go there, and Philadelphia was shocked that he would actually leave.

It was to be another six months before he moved to Baltimore from Philadelphia, a distance of just over 100 miles. This time was filled with consultations, meetings, letters and telegrams, numerous lectures, and finally, the valedictory speech to medical graduates at Penn.Osler’s first public oratory in Baltimore was at the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty’s Annual Meeting on April 24, 1889. His topic, “License to Practice” alluded to the upcoming opening of the new medical school at Hopkins and was printed in full in the Maryland Medical Journal. It ran seven single-spaced, double-column pages!

While there were other, smaller medical schools in Baltimore at the time, most were second rate, at best. The Maryland Legislature had recently rejected the establishment of a Board of Examiners which would ensure that physicians were qualified to practice medicine. 

When the Faculty was founded in 1799 (this is our 225th anniversary year), it was to prevent quacks and pretenders to the healing arts from practicing medicine. With the poor quality of medical schools, and the legislature’s refusal to set up the Board of Examiners, pretenders to the medical arts were once again practicing without oversight. 

On Monday, May 7, 1889, the Johns Hopkins Hospital finally opened its doors with a reception for the public, and on the following day, it opened to physicians, medical students and others. 

According to the City Directory of 1890, Osler lived at number 209 West Monument Street, just several houses west of the esteemed philanthropist and founder of Baltimore’s public library system, Enoch Pratt.

Ironically, the houses along this row, with the exception of Pratt’s, were torn down in the 1980s to make room for the Maryland Historical Society’s headquarters.

By 1892, Osler’s address is listed at Johns Hopkins Hospital where he was living while working on writing his book, along with articles for various medical journals and lectures he gave.

Unfortunately, there are no digitized city directories for the intervening years, but by 1901, Osler is listed as living at No. 1 West Franklin Street, directly across from the beautiful and classic Unitarian Church; 

around the corner from the elegant Catholic Basilica; and just a block from the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Osler was not just a member of the Johns Hopkins faculty, he was also active at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine.

He encouraged interchanges between the two sets of faculty members, even presenting lectures at the University and appearing at the first meeting of their History Club. He also strongly encouraged the older and younger members to gather at the Faculty, which was a “neutral ground” between Hopkins and the University of Maryland. Osler was a great proponent of inter-generational and inter-institutional learning.

Among Dr. and Mrs. Osler’s closest friends in Baltimore were Dr. and Mrs. Henry Barton Jacobs. 

Dr. Jacobs was one of the early “latch-keyers” who lived next to Osler’s house on Franklin Street. Mrs. Jacobs was the former Mary Frick Garrett, the widow of Robert Garrett, President of the powerful B&O Railroad. Dr. Jacobs’ practice consisted of a singular patient – Mr. Robert Garrett. Five years after Mr. Garrett died, in an extraordinarily low-key ceremony, Mary Garrett and Dr. Jacobs were married, perhaps taking the Osler’s wedding as their guide. 

Most interestingly, Robert’s sister, also named Mary Garrett, gave the money to Hopkins to tide it over when it had financial troubles in its early years, with the proviso that Hopkins would admit women from the start. The two Marys were on opposite sides politically, with Mary Frick Garrett being very conservative, opposing both suffrage and co-education, while Mary Elizabeth Garrett strongly supported both of these ideals. 

In 1896, Osler needed a care-taker for the nearly-dead library at the Medical & Chirurgical Faculty, where he was now President. Of course, he was friends with bibliophile, Bernard C. Steiner, who succeeded his father as the president of the Enoch Pratt Free Library. Mr. Steiner recommended Marcia Crocker Noyes, a bright young woman who worked for the library in circulation, and he knew she was up for the challenge of this new position.

Miss Noyes and Dr. Osler became great friends, and until his death, he sent her special books for the Faculty’s library. Miss Noyes visited the Oslers several times in England, and she and Osler kept up a long, warm correspondence.

Although Osler was a homebody who preferred being with his books and his writings, he was often called on to be a guest, or a guest of honor, at black tie dinners. In Baltimore, many of these occasions were held at the prestigious, and until recently, men-only, Maryland Club, an imposing granite edifice a few blocks from Osler’s house on Franklin Street.

The Maryland Club was a frequent gathering place for the men from Hopkins because of its proximity to both the hospital and the Mount Vernon neighborhood where many of the early Hopkins physicians lived. 

Luckily, there is a menu from a specific dinner held on May 15, 1904. This menu sold at auction a few years ago for more than $7,500++. The purpose of the dinner was for George Smith, the publisher of the 63-volume set of biographies, to present them to Osler. Many of the “old timers” from Hopkins attended and someone had the foresight to get everyone to sign the menu, including the reclusive and elusive Egerton Yorick Davis.

Harvey Cushing’s book states that after the dinner, a procession of guests left the club and headed towards 1 West Franklin, with barrow-loads of the books for Osler’s library. This is particularly funny when you realize that there is a steep hill going down and an equally steep hill rising between the Club and Osler’s house.

Osler jumped into life in Baltimore, serving on myriad committees, including one to decrease cases of typhoid and tuberculosis in Baltimore. This could have been, in part, because of his friendship with Dr. Jacobs, who, after his only patient died, became interested in caring for those with tuberculosis, and then eliminating it. 

Osler and Jacobs established the National Foundation for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (now the American Lung Association), and Jacobs’ wife founded a hospital for children with tuberculosis in the mountains west of Baltimore.

Things were coming to a head in 1904, with Osler traveling across the country and around the world to lecture. Even when he was at home, he was inundated with people stopping by the house calling on him. Mrs. Osler had had enough and was worried about Osler’s health if he didn’t slow down.

But there was one more thing that may have cemented the Oslers' decision to leave Baltimore. 

In February of 1904, a massive fire ravaged Baltimore City. It started small, but fanned by brisk winter winds, it spread to the north and east of where it began. Baltimore’s fire department was not large enough to stop the flames, and they called for engines from Washington, DC, and New York, Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

It is hard to imagine the terror the family felt as they knew the fire was coming closer and closer, and getting bigger and bigger. Cushing talks about Osler arriving back in Baltimore late on the day the fire started, and briefly mentioning the fire in his journal. Of course, there were guests at both Osler’s house and at the latch-key house, and everyone gathered at the Osler’s.

By Monday afternoon, the fire could be seen through the south-facing windows of the house. While Osler was generally unflappable, the jingling of his watch-chain and smoking more than his daily allocation of cigarettes, gave his nerves away. 22

Flaming embers were falling on nearby houses, driven by the winds, and the police came by to tell the household to get ready to leave. The servants got a wagon, and the family’s most precious items, especially Osler’s books, were packed in trunks and barrels. The cooks made a final dinner of oyster stew and plenty of coffee, and Revere was awoken and dressed. But soon after, the winds shifted, and the fire changed direction. It eventually stopped when it couldn’t jump the Jones Falls which divided the city into east and west segments.

However, Johns Hopkins was not as lucky. The University owned a significant amount of property in downtown Baltimore, inherited from the actual Johns Hopkins, and much of it was in the “Burnt District” as it came to be known. The Hospital was set to lose upwards of $400,000 in the money of the day, and it would be a long time before they recovered financially.

By the time The Great Baltimore Fire was controlled, a total of more than 1,500 buildings were destroyed, and more than 1,000 were damaged. The fire consumed a total of 81 city blocks from the harbor to within several hundred yards of the Osler’s house on Franklin Street. Ironically, the engineers who rebuilt Baltimore established a club, which eventually found its home in the old Garrett-Jacobs Mansion.

In just over a year, Osler and his family had left Baltimore and moved to Oxford. 

A few years later, the house on Franklin Street was demolished for a high-rise apartment. Members of the Faculty broke into the demolition site and took beams which were later made into gavels for each of the state medical societies, long-time members of the Faculty, and other friends.

The Oslers occasionally came back to Baltimore, and when they did, there was a whirl of social events, from cocktails with the Cushings, to brandy and cigars with old friends at the Maryland Club, and elegant dinners with the Jacobs. 

In 1909, the newly built Faculty Headquarters, featuring the central Osler Hall, was opened with much fanfare and celebration. 

Osler had advocated for this new building for years and wanted it to include an extensive medical stacks library and a cozy reading room. He gave a brief thank you speech at the opening, and then attended a grand dinner in the evening. During the remainder of this trip to Baltimore and the States, he was lavishly entertained by old friends and colleagues.

Although Osler was only in Baltimore for 16 years, it was the longest he stayed anywhere and seemed to be happy living in the city.

We are honored that he considered Baltimore home, and we still see his influence and accomplishments everywhere.

Thank you.

 Meg Fairfax Fielding
American Osler Society Conference
Kansas City, May 2024